Harare | Monday
THE offices of Zimbabwe’s only independent daily and those of a company that printed opposition election campaign material were petrol bombed early on Monday in the country’s second largest city. The incident occurred amid an increasingly tense run-up to presidential polls on March 9-10.
A security guard who witnessed the bombing around 3:00 am (0100 GMT) at the Daily News offices said two bombs were hurled at the paper’s reception area, an AFP journalist reported.
The offices suffered minor damages after the guard rushed to put out the fire.
A private printing firm, the Daily Press (not linked to the Daily News), which is five streets away from the newspaper, was burned down after a petrol bomb attack.
Most of the furniture, computers and telephones were razed. The company had been printing campaign flyers and posters for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Journalists at the Daily News were back at work after police went to the premises to carry out investigations.
Last week the newspaper’s offices were plastered with ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) presidential election campaign posters.
Launched two years ago, the mass circulation Daily News has frequently come under fire from government and its supporters.
Its printing press was destroyed by a bomb blast in January last year, eight months after another blast rocked its Harare offices.
Its editors and reporters have been arrested on various charges. – Sapa-AFP
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